,4 BOOKS OF SECRETS. 



and are disagreeable examples of typograi)hy. There are more of the same 

 kind. " The Fountain of Knowledge or Complete Family Guide," which 

 begins with the Indian way of marking silk, linen or woollen, tells how to 

 breed game-cocks and singing birds, to restore an apparently drowned 

 person to life, gives rules for nursing, a cure for the small pox and a receipt 

 to remove freckles. This pamphlet is by " Sarah vSaunders, Mother of 

 seventeen Children, and brought them through all Diseases incident to 

 Children '" ; an excellent mother but weak in syntax. I have seen the first 

 edition, besides the sixth, which is in the British Museum. Amongst other 

 things it contains a description of the "expeditious or fountain pen," which 

 is, therefore, an old invention. 



There were also "The New Handmaid to the Arts," "The School of 

 Arts," and " The Laboratory or School of Arts," this last adapted from the 

 German. 



In the first quarter or so of the last century books after the old fashion 

 still appeared, as, for example, "The Painters and Varnishers Guide," 1804, 

 from the French; the seventh edition in i8ioof"The Laboratory," just 

 mentioned ; " The Female Instructor," on manners, medicine, cookery and 

 domestic economy : " The Family Receipt-book," undated, a quarto of six 

 hundred pages in double columns, with an appalling title-page ; " 500 

 Useful and amusing Experiments in the Arts and Manufactures," by 

 George G. Cary. Books on fireworks, on conjuring, on the toilet, are 

 among the receipt books of the time. 



All these and many more are of such a quality that interest in them falls 

 to a minimum, whether as regards their contents or their execution. 



When, leaving chronology, we examine the contents of the books, they 

 appear to be about as varied as human wants and desires themselves, and to 

 be ready to provide efficient practical guidance for most of the contingencies 

 of every day life. A brief notice of a few of the subjects may be given. 



The section of the literature which deals with the Secrets of Nature is a 

 remarkable one, for in it we see the method of descriptive Natural History 



